In modern electronic communications products, a backplane is generally used to connect electrical signal boards and the like, that is, the backplane needs to provide a signal transmission path and carry a current to be provided for other boards. The backplane and the boards together constitute a perpendicular and orthogonal interconnection system, and refer to the patent document No. ZL200520106997.5 of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. for a specific structure of the system. However, with the rapid development of the communications industry, the system capacity and the number of slots increasingly grow, resulting in a dramatic increase of the size of the backplane. Therefore, a link length from a transmit end to a receive end in a system keeps on increasing. However, loss of a transmission link increases with the increase of the link length; particularly for a signal rate of 10 Gbps or above, because of problems with a PCB material, a transmission line, and design and manufacturing, a link length that a chip can support is shorter. Currently, while searching for a new type of high-performance board material and ways to improve chip capability, system engineers are eagerly searching for a solution to shorten the length of a transmission link in a system.
The prior art related to an orthogonal backplane includes two types. Conventional orthogonal connectors are used, including two curved female connectors and two straight male connectors, where the two straight male connectors are separately installed on two sides of a center backplane and share a same via hole; the two curved female connectors are separately installed on two boards, and the two boards are separately located on two sides of the backplane and cooperate with the corresponding straight male connectors, so as to implement interconnection.
Improved orthogonal connectors are used, including two curved female connectors and a straight male connector with pins on two sides, where a via hole is opened at an orthogonal position of a center backplane, and the straight male connector is fastened on the backplane by using a fastening apparatus on a shell; the two curved female connectors are separately installed on two boards, and the two boards are separately located on two sides of the backplane and cooperate with the pins of the straight male connector, so as to implement interconnection. A backplane still needs to provide a common via hole for the conventional orthogonal backplane connectors, and front and rear board insertion directions are perpendicular; therefore, heat dissipation becomes a bottleneck. The via hole opened on the backplane in the improved orthogonal solution facilitates heat dissipation; however, two interfaces where the straight male connector and the curved female connectors cooperate with each other still exist, and therefore, there is still room to shorten the link length. With the development of communications technologies, an existing orthogonal architecture needs to be upgraded. However, currently, it is difficult to upgrade the existing orthogonal architecture, and upgrade costs are high.